We all love booklists – over at The Bookshop Blog, Nora O’Neill has posted a summer reading list, a compilation from various high schools in Connecticut. I post here just the books listed – see the full post for her commentary on each title. [I was especially pleased to see my two favorite books on the list : The Grapes of Wrath and Pride and Prejudice!] – there is hope in the land!
- John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath [“This is by far the runaway winner for reading assignments. Big surprise with it being about the Great Depression. East of Eden and Of Mice and Men also made it onto the list this year. Several years ago, the only Steinbeck to make it onto the lists was Travels With Charlie”]
- Ellison: Invisible Man
- Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
- John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany
- Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice [“Jane Austen seems to be a hot topic of late, spawning various modern… variations. The most bizarre of these is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I did actually see on one reading list.”]
- Friedman: The World is Flat
- Alvarez: In the Time of the Butterflies
- Larson: The Devil in the White City
- Martel: The Life of Pi
- Sinclair: The Jungle
- Picoult: My Sister’s Keeper
- Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
- Albom: Tuesdays with Morie
- Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying
- Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods
- Baker: Growing Up
- Hosseini: Kite Runner
- Angelou: “I Know why the Caged Bird sings”
- Wilder: Our Town
- Rand: Anthem, The Fountainhead, & Atlas Shrugged
- Golding: Lord of the Flies
- Orwell: 1984
- Adams: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- Brown: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
- Guterson: Snow Falling on Cedars
- Hugo: Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Junger: The Perfect Storm
- McCourt: Angela’s Ashes
- McEwan: Atonement
- Morrison: The Bluest Eye
- Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
- Stoker: Dracula
- Walker: The Color Purple
- Plath: The Bell Jar
- Courtenay: The Power of One
